Bear in Mind

Our modern civilization as it develops is creating a kind of "environmental deficit disorder" as suggested in the article which requires "ecotherapy" in the form of healthy and vibrant forests, rivers and lakes around the world, for as Thoreau said, "In Wildness is the preservation of the world."

The conflict between economic development and the natural world will undoubtedly become a crisis for human survival unless the preservation of nature unpolluted becomes a primary goal of man.

Another great Gay Bradshaw essay can be found in Sierra Club Books' new anthology ECOTHERAPY: HEALING WITH NATURE IN MIND. It's called "Transformation through Service: Trans-Species Psychology and Its Implications for Ecotherapy."

Thanks for all the wonderful work you're doing to reconnect us with our animal siblings, Gay!

This essay is so important--thank you for writing about how the deficit of nature in our lives effects us. I think it was Van Gogh who said without ample time outdoors he gets "the meagerness." It seems with all the stimulants we're consuming, we've all got a case of it. As an ecotherapist, I work with this in my practice and my workshops, and I can't tell you how starved we are as humans for kinship with other beings. The great loneliness and disconnection we endure is healed when we slow down and see our world, and allow ourselves to become part of it again.